List of gridiron football quarterbacks passing statistics

A banner hangs in the Rogers Centre to commemorate Damon Allen's record breaking pass in 2006.

This is a list of gridiron football quarterbacks passing statistics for quarterbacks that have played outdoor professional football in North America. This list includes cumulative statistics by players that have played in the National Football League (NFL), Canadian Football League (CFL), United States Football League (USFL), and United Football League (UFL). Below is a listing of the combined professional football league leaders for passing yards, passing touchdowns, passing completions, and passing attempts.[1][2][3][4] Because indoor football is played on a much shorter field and heavily favors offensive scoring, its records are not included in the main list and are noted in a separate addendum below.

During the 2011 CFL season, Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo surpassed Damon Allen to become the all-time passing yards leader in professional football league history.[5] Allen broke the previous record held by Warren Moon in 2006.[6]

Brett Favre surpassed Warren Moon in both passing touchdowns and passing completions during the 2007 NFL season and surpassed Moon in pass attempts during the 2008 NFL season to become the leader in those categories.[7] Since then, Peyton Manning surpassed Favre's touchdown record during the 2014 NFL season.[8]

Warren Moon and Johnny Unitas are the only gridiron quarterbacks to have held the record of the four major passing categories (passing yards, passing touchdowns, pass completions, pass attempts) at the same time.

All-time outdoor professional quarterback passing statistics

Updated through 2014 season; minimum 40,000 passing yards
Bold denotes an active player
RankNameTenureLeaguesAttemptsCompletionsComp %TouchdownsInterceptionsYardageQB Rating
1 Calvillo, AnthonyAnthony Calvillo 1994 – 2013 CFL[9] 9,437 5,892 62.4 455 224 79,816* 95.5
2 Allen, DamonDamon Allen 1985 – 2007 CFL[10] 9,138 5,158 56.4 394 278 72,381 83.8
3 Favre, BrettBrett Favre 1991 – 2010 NFL 10,169* 6,300* 62.0 508 336 71,838 86.0
4 Moon, WarrenWarren Moon 1978 – 2000 CFL/NFL[11] 9,205 5,357 58.2 435 310 70,553 84.2
5 Manning, PeytonPeyton Manning 1998 – present NFL 9,049 5,927 65.5 530* 234 69,691 97.5
6 Marino, DanDan Marino 1983 – 1999 NFL 8,358 4,967 59.4 420 252 61,361 86.4
7 Flutie, DougDoug Flutie 1985 – 2005 CFL/NFL/USFL[12] 7,276 4,286 58.9 369 237 58,179 87.8
8 Brees, DrewDrew Brees 2001 – present NFL 7,458 4,937 66.2 396 194 56,033 95.4
9 Burris, HenryHenry Burris 1998 – present CFL/NFL[13][14] 6,560 4,005 61.1 338 210 55,461 92.0
10 Brady, TomTom Brady 2000 – present NFL 7,168 4,551 63.5 392 143 53,258 95.9
11 McManus, DannyDanny McManus 1990 – 2006 CFL[15] 6,689 3,640 54.4 259 281 53,255 76.0
12 Ray, RickyRicky Ray 2002 – present CFL[16] 6,217 4,205 67.6* 279 158 52,063 97.7*
13 Elway, JohnJohn Elway 1983 – 1998 NFL 7,250 4,123 56.9 300 226 51,475 79.9
14 Lancaster, RonRon Lancaster 1960 – 1978 CFL 6,233 3,384 54.3 333 396* 50,535 72.4
15 Tarkenton, FranFran Tarkenton 1961 – 1978 NFL 6,487 3,686 56.8 342 266 47,003 80.1
16 Testaverde, VinnyVinny Testaverde 1987 – 2007 NFL 6,701 3,787 56.5 275 267 46,233 75.0
17 Kelly, JimJim Kelly 1984 – 1996 NFL/USFL[17] 5,933 3,604 60.7 320 195 45,309 88.8
18 Bledsoe, DrewDrew Bledsoe 1993 – 2006 NFL 6,717 3,839 57.2 251 206 44,611 77.1
19 Dunigan, MattMatt Dunigan 1983 – 1996 CFL 5,476 3,057 55.8 306 211 43,857 84.5
20 Glenn, KevinKevin Glenn 2001 – present CFL[18] 5,285 3,284 62.1 239 168 43,336 89.9
21 Garcia, JeffJeff Garcia 1994 – 2011 CFL/NFL/UFL[19][20] 5,955 3,645 61.2 281 146 43,300 88.9
22 Fouts, DanDan Fouts 1973 – 1987 NFL 5,604 3,297 58.8 254 242 43,040 80.2
23 Collins, KerryKerry Collins 1995 – 2011 NFL 6,261 3,487 55.7 208 196 40,922 73.8
24 Montana, JoeJoe Montana 1979 – 1994 NFL 5,391 3,409 63.2 273 139 40,551 92.3
25 Ham, TracyTracy Ham 1987 – 1999 CFL 4,945 2,670 54.0 284 164 40,534 86.6
26 Unitas, JohnnyJohnny Unitas 1956 – 1973 NFL 5,186 2,830 54.6 290 253 40,239 78.2

^* = Leader in category for outdoor gridiron football.

Addendum

Kurt Warner has 44,931 gridiron passing yards. However, this list consists only outdoor gridiron football. His outdoor gridiron football statistics from his time in the NFL (32,344 passing yards)[21] and his time with the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe (2,101 passing yards)[22] totals 34,445 outdoor gridiron passing yards. He also passed for 10,486 yards as a member of the Iowa Barnstormers of the Arena Football League which is played indoors.[22]

Aaron Garcia has over 62,200 gridiron passing yards. However, all of his totals consist entirely Arena gridiron football from the Arena Football League (AFL) and therefore is excluded from this list. Four other AFL players (Mark Grieb, Clint Dolezel, Andy Kelly, Sherdrick Bonner) have amassed over 40,000 gridiron football passing yards which are also excluded from this list since arena football is played indoors.[23]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Who is pro football's all-time passing leader? Try Anthony Calvillo". USA Today. 2011-10-11. Retrieved 2011-10-11.
  2. ↑ "Calvillo, Als win on QB's record-setting day". The Sports Network. Retrieved 2011-10-11.
  3. ↑ "Quarterbacks Who Played in the NFL and CFL". Rutgers.edu. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
  4. ↑ "Football Records and Leaderboards". Pro Football Reference.com. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
  5. ↑ Alouettes’ Calvillo breaks pro football’s passing record
  6. ↑ "Argos' Allen is football's top passer". CBC Sports.ca. 2006-09-04. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
  7. ↑ CALVILLO WILL NOT RETURN TO ALOUETTES THIS SEASON
  8. ↑ Peyton Manning breaks TD record
  9. ↑ "Anthony Calvillo CFL Statistics". CFL.ca. Retrieved 2011-10-01.
  10. ↑ "Damon Allen CFL Statistics". CFL.ca. Retrieved 2011-07-16.
  11. ↑ "Warren Moon CFL/NFL Statistics". Events Edge Entertainment and Speakers Bureau. Retrieved 2010-09-21.
  12. ↑ "Doug Flutie CFL/NFL/USFL Statistics". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2010-09-21.
  13. ↑ "Henry Burris CFL Statistics". CFL.ca. Retrieved 2010-10-30.
  14. ↑ "Henry Burris NFL Statistics". NFL.com. Retrieved 2010-10-30.
  15. ↑ "Danny McManus CFL Statistics". CFL.ca. Retrieved 2014-07-05.
  16. ↑ "Ricky Ray CFL Statistics". CFL.ca. Retrieved 2011-08-20.
  17. ↑ "Jim Kelly NFL/USFL Statistics". Pro Football Hall of Fame.com. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
  18. ↑ "Kevin Glenn CFL Statistics". CFL.ca. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
  19. ↑ "Jeff Garcia NFL Statistics". NFL.com. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
  20. ↑ "Cumulative Week 10 2010 UFL Statistics". UFL-Football.com. Retrieved 2011-07-16.
  21. ↑ Kurt Warner - Profile
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Kurt Warner jersey and football added to Hall's collection
  23. ↑ AFL Passing Records